072716 Upper York Mandolin Quartet, Ottawa, ON
I was thrilled and excited for the chance to hear Kevin lead his Mandolin Quartet on July 27th, 2016 at a new Ottawa venue on King Edward Street called La Nouvelle Scène…
Author: Todd Snelgrove
I've been having a lot of fun these past fifty-odd years. I've busked and bicycled through more places I can count, taught music and caught dengue fever, managed a band that toured all over North America and worked with Canada's National Orchestra for two decades. I've traveled countless miles to see a thousand concerts, played hundreds of gigs, won in Vegas and lost in Estonia, worked as a concert promoter, university instructor, janitor, and entertainment writer, seen the Grateful Dead and hiked the Dogon Valley, ran the stairs of the CN Tower and pedalled across Scandinavia once and Newfoundland twice. I've visited the graves of Alexander the Great and the great Robert Johnson, drunk excessively with some of the best and worst people you can imagine, and I've slept in some very, very weird places. Several years ago I started writing some of it down, and much of it is collected here for your perusal.
072603 nero/Guh, Killaloe, ON
If you don’t know Killaloe then you might be surprised to discover that something called the Killaloe Community Craft Fair is actually a really awesome camping-in-the-woods weekend rife with nifty art, music, and workshops…
072017 David Wilcox/Monkeyjunk, Kemptville, ON
July 20th, 2017 was a beautiful day and the pair of us drove south out of the city to little, rural Kemptville and parked in the sparsely-filled Community College campus parking lot. There was nobody in line for tickets and nobody in line to get in, and in mere seconds we were on the soccer pitch walking idly towards the beer tent…
071815 Air Supply/Deep Purple, Ottawa, ON
On July 18th, 2015 I was excited to head down to LeBreton Flats to the Ottawa Bluesfest, as I had a legendary rock group to check off of my ever-lengthening seen-‘em list…
071710 Lewis Black/Kathleen Madigan/The Hold Steady, Ottawa, ON
I would often watch Lewis Black’s late-nite scream therapy sessions on The Daily Show and wonder how he could red-line himself for those full three minutes but man, you should see him keep at it for a solid hour…
071615 Mother Mother, Ottawa, ON
I attended the 2015 Ottawa Bluesfest rather sparingly, spending only seven of the eleven nights onsite…
071516 Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ottawa, ON
I took in the show from the calm and easy confines at the back of the concert field, an area that was lacking in any sort of edginess but was steep with shockingly good company and thick with festival beers…
071415 Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ottawa, ON
A short essay on how I convinced myself to trek down to the Ottawa Bluesfest just to see another old, tired classic rock band that has been past their prime since I was a kid…
071314 Goddo/Be In The Band Showcase, Ottawa, ON
I spent much of the final day of the 2014 Ottawa Bluesfest cat-herding and playing the guitar but somewhere in between I snuck over to the River Stage and caught most of Goddo’s set…
071211 John Fogerty, Ottawa, ON
What a great show, top-to-bottom, and a pretty good jerk chicken sandwich taboot. Gotta love Bluesfest…
